I know some of us don't live in "tornado alley" but some of us do. What I've seen in the past few years is a conundrum of sorts.

Consider Sunday evening. The tornado sirens sounded in my town. I live in a slab house ( house built on a concrete slab with no basement or crawl space). There is a so called shelter two blocks from me ( elementary school ). I had my 86 year old brother and his feeble blind wife staying with me.I am not able to get to it in 15 minutes.

I rode it out as I've done several times. Just put my shoes on and watch

The weather station said there was a storm capable of producing tornados 8 miles south and 6 miles west of me heading in a northEAST direction at 50 mph. You do the vectoring and math.

This is what is happening. About a half dozen times each year this situation comes up. They blow the siren. No tornado. Again and again it has happened. Often enough that folks are starting to ignore the sirens.

Back in 2010 I was coming back from Chanute KS , 20 miles south and a bit west of me , returning from a chemo treatment. Bad weather in the north. Right over my town of Iola Ks. As I drove into town the sirens were blazing. I was in my car just out side of town soi looked for the funnel . None. Bad clouds though. Driving into town to my house, I saw folks doing regular stuff. Getting gas, getting food at fast food joints, walking on sidewalk. I saw no hustle bustle one might expect with a tornado looming. Remember, this is eastern KS people know what tornadoes an this was after that town of Greensburg was wiped off the map.

To me, I think they should only blow the siren if one is spotted not if "one may be produced ".

But, I also know that they would catch hell if a tornado came and they didnt sound. So they sound them just in case.

I just heard that on the one in Moore, the siren sounded "only 16 minutes before the tornado was produced"

Dave

_________________________
There are 10 kinds of people.Those that understand binary and those that don't.

If you think about it, there are quite a few things one can do in advance to be prepared, then heed the sirens, and be ready to go at a moment's notice.

To simply ignore them defeats the purpose of storm chaserswho’d spent the last decade learning the characteristics ofa storm system in order to put in place a network of warningsin the event of a killer storm.

I suppose the sensible thing might be to heed the sirens and prepare yourself for a bug-out. (Keep your WeatherBand Radio tuned to the local doppler info station, have copies of youressential papers readily at hand, do the leg-work concerning where there are at least two shelters in advance that you can get to both from home and if you're caught out away from home...

_________________________."...or am I a butterfly dreaming she's a woman?"

Pirate
Old And In The Way
Registered: 02/21/07
Posts: 3047
Loc: Missouri

The government came to town and built two tornado shelters, one on the far east side of town at the middle school, the other in mid town at the university...if someone started to the shelters when the alarms were sounded...and there was a tornado...they would not make it...no place to park at the university shelter, but at least it open 24/7 used as a rec. gym for the students...and the middle school may have some place to park, but if it is after school hours you would have to wait for a city employee to come to the shelter and unlock the doors...as I see it if you live within a block or two around the shelters it may be some benefit..if not...well you are just out of luck.

s'truthhaving the available safe-rooms locked can also defeat the purpose......or answer the question as to; WHY The Sirens Sound So Far In Advance......and what to do once they do sound...

The guy with the keys had better get "Off & On"and "Ho" his arse down to the shelters to unlock the doors, and make any last (15)minutepreparations to get as many people as possibleinside without panic.

My point was that this same mind-set of;"ALL or NOTHING At ALL!" against the argumentof gun control regulation OR climate change isWrong-Headed. Granted NOTHING Is Perfect, nor can not be improved upon over time.

We do what we can do the best we can do it underexisting circumstances, and make adjustments toimprove upon them as we go.

INDEED! "What Else CAN We Do?"...Sit on our hands whining about Taxes and the Costof doing whatever can be done to change the way"..things have always been done in the past"?

_________________________."...or am I a butterfly dreaming she's a woman?"

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